🌿 Folk Prescriptions

Angina pectoris in coronary heart disease is a common and increasingly prevalent condition, posing a growing threat to human health. While modern medicine offers effective drugs to relieve angina, recurrence is common, and correcting electrocardiographic ischemic changes often remains unsatisfactory. Recently, we have adopted Yiqi Huoxue Tongmai Tang for treatment, achieving significant results.
Formula Composition: Huang Qi 30g, Ren Shen 15g, Dan Shen 30g, Chuan Xiong 10g, Dang Gui 10g, Chi Shao 15g, Hong Hua 10g, Tao Ren 10g, San Qi 6g, Gu Lou 10g, Xie Bai 10g, Yu Jin 15g, Sheng Di 15g, Chai Hu 10g, Zhi Gan Cao 6g. One dose daily, decocted and taken in two doses.
Typical Case
Mr. Yang, male, 58 years old, cadre, visited in October 2002. Chief complaint: recurrent chest tightness and pain, shortness of breath for one year, worsened over the past week. Recently, after overwork at work, he felt intermittent dull pain in the precordial region, radiating to the left shoulder and back, occurring 2–3 times daily, lasting 1–3 minutes each time. Accompanied by chest tightness, shortness of breath, dyspnea on exertion, palpitations, fatigue, pale complexion, cold sweats, dark purple tongue with ecchymotic spots, cyanotic sublingual veins, fine, sluggish, or intermittent pulse. Electrocardiogram during attacks showed: horizontal ST segment depression of 0.1–0.2 mV in V1–V3, inverted T waves in AVF, flattened T waves in V1–V3; echocardiography revealed coronary heart disease changes; lipid profile showed elevated cholesterol, triglycerides, and β-lipoprotein. Western diagnosis: coronary heart disease, stable effort-induced angina; TCM diagnosis: chest obstruction (Xiong Bi), pattern: heart qi deficiency with blood stasis obstruction. Treated with Yiqi Huoxue Tongmai Tang, one dose daily, taken in two doses. After one week, angina largely resolved; ECG showed: T wave inversion in AVF became shallower, ST segment depression in V1–V3 returned to normal. After three weeks, symptoms disappeared; repeat ECG was essentially normal, lipid profile normalized.
Discussion
Coronary heart disease and angina belong to TCM categories "Xiong Bi" and "Zhen Xin Tong." Pathogenesis is closely related to qi deficiency and blood stasis. Traditional Chinese medicine holds that qi and blood are the fundamental substances of the body. Qi governs blood; when qi moves, blood flows. Qi deficiency leads to weak blood; overwork damages heart qi, causing yang deficiency in the chest, reducing blood propulsion, leading to blood stasis in the heart vessels. The lesion site is the heart, mostly a pattern of deficiency with excess manifestation. Thus, treating the symptom focuses on "unblocking," while treating the root requires "tonification." Common methods include tonifying qi, activating blood, resolving stasis, and unblocking collaterals.
The formula uses Huang Qi, sweet and warm, pure yang, excellently replenishing deficient qi; modern pharmacology shows Huang Qi enhances myocardial contractility, improves cardiac function, reduces blood viscosity, and improves microcirculation. Ren Shen greatly replenishes primordial qi, calms the spirit, nourishes blood, and when combined with Huang Qi, enhances qi-tonifying effects. Dan Shen, with effects comparable to Si Wu Tang, excels in activating blood and nourishing blood, improving hypoxia tolerance, enhancing microcirculation, inhibiting platelet aggregation, promoting fibrinolysis, and lowering blood viscosity. Chuan Xiong, pungent and warm, promotes qi movement, resolves depression, activates blood, and relieves pain; pharmacological studies show it inhibits vascular smooth muscle contraction, increases coronary blood flow, and improves myocardial ischemia. Hong Hua activates blood and removes stasis, unblocks meridians; research shows it moderately increases coronary flow, lowers serum total cholesterol, lipids, triglycerides, improves microcirculation, prevents thrombosis, and promotes dissolution. Combined with Chai Hu, it regulates qi movement, opens the chest, and warms yang. Sheng Di, as recorded in *Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing*, "expels blood stasis, cools blood, and eliminates stasis," while also nourishing yin and moisturizing dry blood.